Coalition releases anti-torture statement

WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- A bipartisan group has asked U.S. President George Bush to reinstate pre-Sept. 11, 2001 standards for treating prisoners.

The leaders in politics, and military, national security and religious affairs said an executive order backing off torture-like interrogations would boost alliances in the war on terror and recommit the United States to its values, The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.

The group doesn't expect action as the Bush administration winds down but hopes the White House's next occupant would be interested, said Joseph Nye Jr., former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs and chair of the National Intelligence Council.

"I'm not sure the outgoing administration is going to issue an executive order," Nye told the Monitor. "But I think a new president, whether (Sen. John) McCain or (Sen. Barack) Obama, would be willing to consider it."

The United States' war on terror and treatment of detainees held as terrorist suspects are troubling because the nation's ability to attract allies is undercut, Nye said.

"We're not only committing something unethical, but counterproductive at the same time," he said.

The coalition's statement contained more than 200 signatures, including those of former secretaries of state George Shultz and Madeleine Albright, former defense secretaries Harold Brown and William Cohen, national security advisers, retired military leaders, counterterrorism experts and religious leaders.